The mission of the Core Knowledge Foundation is to advance excellence and equity in education for all children. To achieve this mission, they offer detailed curricular guidance and materials to schools, teachers, parents, and policy makers—to anyone who believes, that every child in a diverse democracy deserves access to enabling knowledge.
Working closely with the Core Knowledge Foundation, Mackin has developed resource sets to meet the needs of teachers in grades 6-8. Middle School Sets include a carefully researched array of titles which together provide complete coverage of content in each subject area of the Sequence.
Background Titles
Professional Titles
Classroom Titles
Audio And DVD Resources
This set includes classic literature selections. To enhance the teaching of the sixth grade poetry selections, there are titles from the beautifully illustrated Poetry for Young People Series, plus audio renditions of the poetry of classic poets.
The Grade 6 English set contains professional titles for teaching the benchmarks of writing, speaking and listening, grammar and usage, spelling and vocabulary. Reference materials include a dictionary of literary terms and a dictionary of American idioms.
Graphic novel versions of classic literature and DVDs provide extra interest for students as they deepen their understanding of the poetry and literature selections.
41 Titles
Additional Student Copies
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Illustrated reference works enable teachers and students to connect the Sequence content in geography, ancient history, the Enlightenment era, and independence movements in Latin America. Ancient history titles include volumes on ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and world religions. This set has several eye-catching browsing books that provide topical overviews in cartoon format.
For understanding the development of economic systems, each set includes DVDs on capitalism and the Industrial Revolution and titles using primary sources to analyze capitalism and socialism. Included are difficult-to-find resources for teaching the Latin American Independence Movements section.
33 Titles
Additional Student Copies
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Several soft cover series have been combined in this set to cover many of the specific American history topics listed. Primary source material is presented and a child’s perspective of America in the mid-nineteenth century becomes real through the archival photos.
24 Titles
Additional Student Copies
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Three lavishly illustrated art history survey texts provide background for the study of the periods of western art in sixth grade. The art of classical Greece and Rome comes to life through fascinating titles that feature archaeological discoveries. Titles highlight Gothic Art, Realism, and romanticism, as well as covering art from the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, and Neoclassical periods.
14 Titles
Three music appreciation titles form the backbone of the sixth grade music set. The content in these professional titles closely matches the required benchmarks in the K-8 Sequence and support learning about the lives and works of listed composers for the Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras. The characteristics of their music are explored and presented in reproducible activities, study guides and timelines. Also included in this set are individual and collective biographies of musicians. A basic music theory title and a music dictionary complete the set.
14 Titles
This set includes titles from the PowerMath series, which features historical and contemporary issues to engage students in problem-solving. Includes titles that explore census mathematics of ancient and modern civilizations.
This math set also contains several survey titles covering pre-algebra, word problems, and ideas for teaching probability and statistics. Also includes titles with tips for mental math with basic computational skills.
19 Titles
Earth science and physical science predominate in sixth grade, along with the study of several human body systems. Titles on the earth, oceans, space, energy, and the human body fit well into this content framework and provide inviting browsing books for your classroom library. Several titles on plate tectonics have wonderful graphics showing how the continents could have fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Biographies of scientists listed in the Sequence are contained in the set along with the comprehensive illustrated reference work.
20 Titles
This set contains titles for classic literary selections, plus supplemental helps such as teaching guides and audio versions. Several of the seventh-grade poetry selections are presented in audio and illustrated versions. DVDs in this set support poetry, speech, and short story content.
The Grade 7 English set contains professional titles for teaching the writing and research, speaking and listening, grammar, spelling, and vocabulary benchmarks. Reference materials include a dictionary of literary terms and a dictionary of Latin words and phrases.
48 Titles
Additional Student Copies
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Primary source documents and photographs in several books show the hardships of the Depression and the rebuilding of the New Deal The Russian Revolution is covered, as well as the first and second world wars. Finally, United States geography gets substantial and a comprehensive geography activity book provides reproducible worksheets to help students with map skills and state and regional facts.
18 Titles
Additional Student Copies
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The study of art in seventh grade is a chronological look at periods of western art from the mid-1800s through the mid-1900s. Art history survey titles place the development of each art period in context. Encompassing many of the specific works for seventh grade, this set contains titles on Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Abstract Impressionists and American art since 1900.
9 Titles
Classical music study in seventh grade is supported by a number of resources. Professional titles provide support in learning about the lives and works of composers for the classical era. The characteristics of classical music are explored and presented in suggested activities, study guides, and timelines which are reproducible. The study of American musical traditions is supported by musician biographies and titles on the history of blues and jazz. A basic music theory title and a music dictionary complete the set.
15 Titles
This math set contains several survey titles covering algebra, geometry, word problems, and ideas for teaching probability and statistics. Titles included introduce the construction of string designs for polygons and polyhedra with step-by-step instructions.
8 Titles
The set for seventh-grade science covers all the content listed in Sequence sections: Atomic Structure, Chemical Bonds and Reactions, Cell Division and Genetics, History of the Earth and Life Forms, Evolution, and Science Biographies. A biography of scientists listed in the Sequence is contained in the set along with the comprehensive illustrated reference work.
18 Titles
This set will be a delight for eighth grade English teachers and students! It includes classic literature selections plus supplemental items that will enrich their study. There are dramatic productions in DVD and audio format for many of the novels, and short story selections by Russian authors are enhanced with DVDs.
The Grade 8 English set contains professional titles for teaching the writing and research, speaking and listening, grammar, spelling, and vocabulary benchmarks. Reference materials include a dictionary of literary terms and a dictionary of foreign words and phrases.
55 Titles
Additional Student Copies
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Each of the areas in the eighth-grade History and Geography Sequence outline is covered in this collection of books. Geography titles provide maps and text to understand the complexities of the changes which came with decolonization and the fall of the iron curtain, the Korean War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and communism in China. Primary source documents are presented in thematic books on the cold war and the civil rights movement. DVDs, photographs, and texts capture some of the political and cultural changes in the 1980s and the 1990s.
35 Titles
Additional Student Copies
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The study of art in eighth grade is devoted to four content areas: painting since WWII, photography, twentieth-century sculpture, and architecture since the industrial revolution. Titles included in this set give an overall framework of modern art and architecture, modern sculpture, and late modernism. In a collective biography of American photographers, as well as the other titles in this set, you will find many of the specific selections listed in the Visual Arts benchmarks for eighth grade.
10 Titles
This set contains some wonderful resources to enhance the study of music in the eighth grade. Students are introduced to non-western music with an audio CD. Listen to folksongs from Africa, the Caribbean, South America, the Pacific, Asia and Europe to become familiar with musical styles from various lands.
Twentieth-century music and composers are covered in a professional title which provides a basis for understanding the themes of music and national identity and modern music.
Opera resources include DVDs on composers and operas. DVDs of operas, Broadway musicals, and composers™ lives are contained in this set to enable teaching about musical theater. Resources for teaching the elements of music content are found in a basic music theory title and a music dictionary.
14 Titles
This math set contains several survey titles covering algebra, geometry, solving word problems in algebra, and trigonometry. Together the titles create a reference set for math teachers seeking traditional and novel ways to ensure that students are ready for high school math.
8 Titles
Physics and chemistry predominate in the topics covered in eighth-grade science. Several books in this set supply comprehensive background material on motion, force, electricity, and magnetism. Photosynthesis and plant and animal interdependency are illuminated in a DVD and non-fiction titles developed for teaching science concepts at the middle school level. Students will be drawn to the fun (but solid) graphic novels in this set. Biographies of scientists listed in the Sequence are included along with the comprehensive illustrated reference work.